The mixed-signal and analog design on a pre-diffused array is a challenging task, given that the digital array is a linear matrix arrangement of minimum-length transistors. To surmount this drawback a specific discipline for designing analog circuits over such array is required. An important novel technique proposed is the use of TAT (Trapezoidal Associations of Transistors) composite transistors on the semi-custom Sea-Of-Transistors (SOT) array. The analysis and advantages of TAT arrangement are extensively analyzed and demonstrated, with simulation and measurement comparisons to equivalent single transistors. Basic analog cells were also designed as well in full-custom and TAT versions in 1.0mm and 0.5mm digital CMOS technologies. Most of the circuits were prototyped in full-custom and TAT-based on pre-diffused SOT arrays. An innovative demonstration of the TAT technique is shown with the design and implementation of a mixed-signal analog system, i. e., a fully differential 2nd order Sigma-Delta Analog-to-Digital (A/D) modulator, fabricated in both full-custom and SOT array methodologies in 0.5mm CMOS technology from MOSIS foundry. Three test-chips were designed and fabricated in 0.5mm. Two of them are IC chips containing the full-custom and SOT array versions of a 2nd-Order Sigma-Delta A/D modulator. The third IC contains a transistors-structure (TAT and single) and analog cells placed side-by-side, block components (Comparator and Folded-cascode OTA) of the Sigma-Delta modulator.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Circuits for sampling and retention of analogue signals are commonly implemented with techniques such as switched capacitors (SC). SC circuits employing the storage of charge in a linear capacitor to represent a signal in the form of voltage. Operational Amplifiers (AmpOp's) are used to transfer the load of a capacitor to another, sampling and holding circuits for analogue signals in closed loop. Recently, another technique has been developed without the need of building linear capacitors, making possible projects compatible with VLSI CMOS processes. This technique, called Switched Current (SI), is characterized by processing the signals in the current form, and implemented through the memory retention of electric charge on the gate of a MOS transistor in saturation zone. The charge is hold in a gate-source voltage and hence the current in a transistor. In this model, the excursion of the signal is not directly dependent on the supply voltage, but dependent on the polarization and current signal. This makes the model attractive for low voltage. The technique does not require AmpOp's and capacitors. The speed of the circuit is not limited by AmpOp's and its gainbandwidth product, but by design and manufacturing process. This technique is not yet consolidated and its performance is still not competitive with SC circuits [1] However, SI circuits become interesting as they constitute an open field for future research and the opportunity to be fully implemented in processes manufacturing oriented to purely digital circuits. This work begins with a framework of the subject matter, placing the reader in the state of the art manufacturing technology and some implications that directly affect analog circuits. Are also presented in this section some implementations which serve to characterize what is being done recently in terms of Sigma Delta (ΣΔ) modulators. Abstract vi In Chapter 2, are made a review of sampling and holding bases, the AD conversion techniques with focuses in oversampled AD converters, the circuits that implementing SC and SI modulators and their influences, and finally a review of the nonidealities that involve the practice of project. Chapter 3 a comparative study is done between memory cells SC and SI. Based on a simplified model of small signals, the behavior analyzes on the signal-noise-ratio (SNR), power consumption and speed, providing indications of performance throughout the operating region of MOS transistors. Chapter 4 deals with the initial specifications for the development of a ΣΔ AD converter for a specific implementation. The s tudies and estimates lead to pre-design of the project's ultimate goal the creation of a ΣΔ modulator in the SC and SI techniques. In Chapter 5 is intended to make the measures and tests that establish the standards of comparison, the discussion of results and conclusions. Finally, in Chapter 6, an alternative proposal is presented based on an architecture that performs a sigma-delta modulator with low distortion, implemented with SI circuit. The final conclusions and contributions are presented in Chapter 7. / Circuitos de amostragem e retenção de sinais analógicos são comumente implementados com técnicas de chaveamento de capacitores (Switched Capacitor SC). Circuitos SC empregam o armazenamento de cargas em um capacitor linear para representar um sinal sob a forma de tensão. Amplificadores Operacionais (AmpOp s) são usados para transferir essa carga de um capacitor a outro, amostrando e retendo sinais analógicos em circuitos de malha fechada. Recentemente, uma outra técnica tem sido desenvolvida sem a necessidade de construção de capacitores lineares, tornando possíveis projetos compatíveis com processos de fabricação VLSI CMOS. Esta técnica, chamada de Switched Current (SI), caracteriza-se por processar os sinais sob a forma de correntes, sendo a operação de memorização implementada através da retenção de carga elétrica na porta de um transistor MOS na zona de saturação. A carga retida corresponde a uma tensão portafonte e, conseqüentemente, a uma corrente no transistor. Neste modelo, a excursão do sinal não é diretamente dependente da tensão de alimentação, mas dependente das correntes de polarização e de sinal. Isso torna o modelo atrativo para baixas tensões. A técnica não requer AmpOp s e implementação física de capacitores. A velocidade do circuito não é limitada por AmpOp s e seu produto ganho-banda, mas pelo projeto e processo de fabricação. Essa técnica ainda não está consolidada e sua performance ainda não é competitiva com os circuitos SC [1], Contudo, os circuitos SI tornam-se interessantes na medida em que constituem um campo aberto para futuras pesquisas e pela possibilidade de serem completamente implementados em processos de fabricação voltados a circuitos puramente digitais. Este trabalho inicia com um enquadramento do trabalho proposto, situando o leitor no contexto do estado da arte das tecnologias de fabricação e algumas implicações diretas que afetam circuitos analógicos. São apresentadas ainda nesta seção algumas implementações que servem para caracterizar o que está sendo feito recentemente em termos de conversores tipo Sigma Delta (ΣΔ). No Capítulo 2, faz-se o embasamento sobre as técnicas utilizadas no processo de amostragem e retenção utilizadas para conversão ADΣΔ e uma revisão das não idealidades que envolvem a prática de projeto. No Capítulo 3 é feito um estudo comparativo, entre células de memória SC e SI. Baseado em modelo simplificado de pequenos sinais, analisa-se o comportamento quanto à relação-sinal-ruido (SNR), ao consumo e à velocidade, fornecendo indicações de desempenho em toda região de funcionamento dos transistores MOS. No Capitulo 4 são abordadas as especificações iniciais ao desenvolvimento de um conversor ΣΔ para uma implementação específica. Os estudos e estimativas que conduzem a pré-concepção do projeto têm como objetivo final a geração de um modulador ΣΔ nas técnicas SC e SI. Nos Capítulos 5 efetuam-se as medidas e testes que estabelecem os padrões de comparação, a discussão dos resultados e conclusões. Por fim, no Capítulo 6, uma proposta alternativa é apresentada com base em uma arquitetura de modulador sigma-delta de baixa distorção, implementada em circuito SI. As conclusões e contribuições finais são apresentadas no capítulo 7.

Com o aumento das aplicações e dispositivos para Internet das Coisas, muitos esforços para reduzir potência dissipada nos transceptores foram investidos. A maioria deles, entretanto, focam individualmente no rádio, nos conversores analógicos para digital e viceversa, e na arquitetura de banda base digital. Como consequência, há pouca margem para melhorias na potência dissipada nestes blocos isolados que compense o enorme esforço. Portanto, este trabalho propõe uma arquitetura adaptativa a nível de sistema focando em reduzir o consumo no conversor analógico para digital e no receptor digital. Ele utiliza um algoritmo robusto para o receptor banda base digital, um conversor analógico para digital topologia Sigma-Delta e um bloco de controle realimentado conforme a relação sinal ruído medida do pacote recebido. O sistema foi projetado para o protocolo IEEE 802.15.4. Para validação do sistema e estimar a potência consumida foi feito um modelo de sistema utilizando a ferramenta Matlab, uma descrição do hardware em linguagem Verilog e uma síntese lógica utilizando o processo da X-FAB XC018. As simulações mostram uma redução na potência consumida pelo sistema de até 13% e ainda atingindo os requisitos do protocolo. Os resultados deste trabalho foram publicados na conferência internacional em tecnologia de instrumentação e medidas de 2014 realizada na cidade de Montevidéu no Uruguai. / With the increase of Internet of Things applications and devices, many efforts to reduce power consumption in transceiver has been invested. Most of them targeted in RF frontend, converters, or in the digital baseband architecture individually. As result, there are few margins nowadays for power improvement in these blocks singly that compensates the huge hard work required. The next optimization step leads to a system level analysis seeking design space and new possibilities expansion. It is in this field that adaptive systems approaches are conquering ground recently. The solutions combines Radio Frequency (RF) and process variation techniques, Low Pass Filters (LPF) and Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) adjustment for better performance, digital baseband bit width adaptive according to income packet SNR, configurable ADC resolution and topology, and others. In this scenario the current work proposes an adaptive system level architecture targeting ADC and digital receiver power reduction. It uses a robust algorithm for digital baseband receiver, a Sigma-Delta ADC, and suggests a feedback control block based on packet SNR measure. The system was designed for the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and required system modeling using Matlab tool, hardware description in Verilog language, and logic synthesis using X-FAB XC018 process for validation and power consumption estimation. Simulations show up to 15% of system power reduction and still meeting the standard requirements. The work results were published in the International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference of 2014 occurred in Montevideo - Uruguay.

This diploma thesis deals with the design of a sigma delta AD converter for a sensor application of junction temperature measurement in the automotive environment. A modified continuous time current mode modulator structure was designed. Its advantage lies in shifting and extending an input voltage range to work with signals from 0 V to 1,2 with a high impedance input and a relatively low hardware complexity. The functionality was verified by a behavioral model in the Simulink environment and then by transistor level simulation in CADENCE environment using ONC18/I4T technology.

Wireless communication systems are based on frequency synthesizers that generate carrier signals, which are used to transmit information. Frequency synthesizers use voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) to produce the required frequencies within a specified period of time. In the process of generating frequency, the VCO and other electronic components such as amplifiers produce some unwanted short-term frequency variations, which cause frequency instability within the frequency of interest known as phase noise (PN). PN has a negative impact on the performance of the overall wireless communication system. A literature study conducted on this research reveals that the existing PN cancellation techniques have some limitations and drawbacks that require further attention. A new PN correction technique based on the combination of least mean square (LMS) adaptive filtering and single-loop single-bit Sigma Delta (SD) modulator is proposed. The new design is also based on the Cascaded Resonator Feedback (CRFB) architecture. The noise transfer function (NTF) of the architecture was formulated in way that made it possible to stabilize the frequency fluctuations within the in-band (frequency of interest) by locating its poles and zeros within the unit circle. The new design was simulated and tested on a commercially available software tool called Agilent Advanced Design System (ADS). Simulation results show that the new technique achieves better results when compared with existing techniques as it achieves a 104 dB signal-to-noise (SNR), which is an improvement of 9 dB when compared with the existing technique accessed from the latest publications. The new design also achieves a clean signal with minimal spurious tones within the inband with a phase noise level of -141 dBc/Hz (lower phase noise level by 28 dBc/Hz) when compared with the existing techniques. / Thesis (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

Detta arbete inleds med en översiktlig teoretiskt bakgrund om analog till digital-omvandlare(A/D-omvandlare). Vartefter arbetet beskriver två kända metoder för att transformera återkopplingsloopar konstruerade i den tidsdiskreta z-domänen till den tidskontinuerliga Laplace-domänen. En simulering genomfördes för att visa hur en av dessa metoder gav en förväntadbrusformning. Mätning av brus med diskret Fouriertransform beskrivs och en modell av en inkrementellsigma-delta A/D-omvandlare simuleras för att visa hur en enkel räknare kan användas i deci-meringen.

Abstract The goal of this dissertation was to study and model the settling transient response of switched-capacitor (SC) circuit, which is the most important building block of Analog-to-Digital converters (ADCs), and to improve the settling performance of the SC circuit implemented in ADC in CMOS technology. In the design of the SC circuit, there are common obstacles in obtaining a precise and fast settling with low power consumption. The main contribution of this thesis is to speed up different SC circuits without adding extra power consumption or to achieve the required settling precision with low power consumption. Two solutions to reduce the power consumption of SC integrators in sigma-delta (SD) ADCs were designed and verified by simulations. These implementations are based on the passive charge redistribution technique by injecting a precalculated open-loop charge in the output of the first integrator. The injected charge was implemented either by a continuous function of the input and feedback voltages or by quantizing to three levels. In both cases, the idea is to minimize the initial transient voltage in the input of the first OTA and hence bypass the slewing of the OTA. Another approach was proposed for the traditional SC residue circuit of the pipeline ADC, where a load capacitor is connected to the output during the evaluation phase. Here, a pre-charge of the load capacitance can be used. One proposed implementation is called the continuously controlled pre-charged technique. It pre-charges the load capacitor to the proper voltage during the previous phase, connects the pre-charged load capacitor to the output of the OTA during the evaluation phase, and hence pulls the charge sharing so that the initial input step of the OTA is instantaneously minimized. The other implementation called the minimal pre-charged method implemented for the SC residue circuit of the pipeline ADC is to simply pre-charge the load capacitor with the fixed existing voltage, minimized the spread of the initial input voltage. This proposed technique did not require any additional active components. / Tiivistelmä Kytkettyihin kapasitansseihin (SC-tekniikka) perustuvat vahvistimet ovat CMOS-tekniikkaan perustuvien analogia-digitaalimuuntimien (AD-muunnin) tärkeimpiä osia. Tämän väitöstyön tavoitteena oli tutkia ja mallittaa SC-tekniikkaan perustuvien vahvistinpiirien asettumisaikaa, ja etsiä piiriteknisiä keinoja asettumisajan nopeuttamiseksi. SC-piirien suunnittelun suurimpia ongelmia on saavuttaa tarkka ja nopea asettuminen mahdollisimman pienellä tehonkulutuksella. Tämän työn päätuloksina on joukko keinoja, joilla voidaan nopeuttaa SC-kytkettyjen vahvistimien asettumista ilman että niiden tehonkulutusta lisätään, tai saavuttaa aiempi suorituskyky pienemmällä tehonkulutuksella. Menetelmät perustuvat siihen, että SC-piirin passiivista varausjakautumista ohjataan niin, että vahvistimen tulosolmussa oleva transientti minimoituu, jolloin vahvistin ei ajaudu virtarajoitteiselle toiminta-alueelle, vaan sen asettuminen nopeutuu merkittävästi. Sigma-delta-tyyppiset AD-muuntimet koostuvat SC-integraattoreista, ja näiden asettumisen nopeuttamiseen kehitettiin ja varmennettiin simuloiden kaksi tapaa. Varauksen jakautumista autettiin syöttämällä erillisellä varauspumpulla transkonduktanssivahvistimen lähtösolmuun tietty, integraattorin tilasta ja tuloista riippuva varaus. Tällöin vahvistimen tulossa näkyvä alkutransientti pienenee, ja vahvistin ei ajaudu virtarajoitteiselle toiminta-alueelleen, jolloin sen asettumisvirhe pienenee merkittävästi. Varausinjektio toteutettiin kahdella eri tavalla: laskemalla tarvittava varaus joko jatkuvana funktiona tulosignaaleista, tai approksimoimalla sitä muutamalla diskreetillä tasolla. Pipeline-tyyppisissä AD-muuntimissa peruslohko koostuu SC-kytketystä vahvistimesta, jonka kuormakapasitanssi on kytkettynä vahvistimen lähtöön asettumisen aikana. Tämän kapasitanssin esivaraaminen sopivasti tarjoaa hyvin yksinkertaisen keinon ohjata varausjakautumista niin, että vahvistimen tulossa oleva transientti saadaan minimoitua ja toiminta virtarajoitteisessa moodissa vältettyä. Tässäkin tapauksessa kehitettiin ja varmennettiin kaksi vaihtoehtoista toteutusta. Ensimmäisessä kuormakapasitanssin esivarausjännite lasketaan tulosuureiden jatkuvana funktiona erillisellä summausvahvistimella. Toisessa, hyvin minimalistisessa ratkaisussa esivaraukseen käytetään kolmea käytettävissä olevaa kiinteää jännitettä. Tämä menetelmä ei vaadi lainkaan ylimääräisiä aktiivikomponentteja.

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